


Dear Hearts and Gentle People

by Dugamar (Coolneo123)



Category: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Gun Violence, Illegal Activities, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paramilitary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:07:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22679968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coolneo123/pseuds/Dugamar
Summary: "Listen kid. We d on't stand for Truth, Justice, the American Way, or any other lofty ideal. We just kill. One by one. Every monstrosity that thinks itself above the law.""And considering that's just about all of them," she explained, reaching down and proffering a hand to help me to my feet, "we've got quite a lot of work to do."Also known as, wow. The things in TAU are mainly evil and hot damn someone's gotta do something about it.
Kudos: 19





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> you know who you are and i blame you.
> 
> i take no responsibility for this fic and it's existence. 
> 
> (updates will probably actually happen to this one.)

Nathan Gwindwall laid flat on his stomach, decked out in the most impressive combat equipment money and magic favors could buy. His full-body combat suit plated him head to toe in an advanced composite polymer that made him nearly invulnerable to conventional small arms, and even to some more serious weapon systems. 

Unfortunately for Nathan Gwindwall, he wasn't duking it out with a terrorist group, organized crime syndicate, or even an enemy infantry battalion. He was locked in a room, alone and cut off, with one of the most dangerous beings known to humanity. 

He exhaled slightly, and could feel the breath being pulled out of him and into his combat suit's oxygenator system. Keeping a steady rhythm, it pushed another breath's worth of oxygen-rich gas into his lungs. Nathan swore he could feel the increased energy with every movement of his muscles, every twitch.

Crawling forward slightly checked his 3-o'clock from behind the loose chunk of concrete and stone that he had been using as cover. Clear. Nathan swung his body upwards, vaulting over the barrier with one hand, deftly holding onto his rifle with the other. 

It's best not to lose your only means of defense when dueling demons. 

Landing in a low crouch, he moved silently, and with the grace of a man who had spent years in the special forces. That was the suit, primarily. And Nathan knew that full well. A few years of training did not an Operator make. 

Moving behind a collapsed stone pillar, Nathan finally found a bead on his current quarry. It would've been difficult  _ not _ to recognize this demon. 

Obnoxious suit: Check. 

Non-anatomical Wings: Check.

The way his hat floated a few inches above his head in a way that seemed to defy all pre-Trancendence laws of reality: Check.

Nathan didn't need to see this malevolent nightmare's face to confirm  _ exactly _ who was a mere fifty yards away from him.

His gloved hands trembling, Nathan raised his magnetic rifle and aim took aim with his gyro-stabilized red dot. Or, tried too, anyway. He was particularly quivering with nervousness and fear. 

Despite his training, despite his dedication, despite his unyielding desire for vengeance; Nathan Gwindwall found himself hesitating. He was, after all, little more than a boy. 

Would he turn about, running like a child? Prove to everyone, even to himself that he was never cut out for this? 

That he never even had a chance to fight back. 

That he should've just rolled over that day in July and accepted what was coming to him. 

No. . .

He wouldn't. 

He couldn't just let everything he's done, everything he's  _ let _ be done, for nothing. He needs to stand, and he needs to fight.

For better or for worse, he would see this through. A man against a monster. A monster who saw it fitting to mock mankind with a distorted reflection of itself. It seemed fitting somehow.

Steadying himself, Nathan stood rose from his concealed position and locked his sights directly to the abomination's center of mass, clamping down down on the trigger with a determined squeeze.

"Click!" 

What? 

Why wasn't it? 

He'd forgotten to disengage the fucking safety. 

He fumbled with the magnetic rifle, looking down at it, dumbstruck.

He pushed the safety lever back out of position with his thumb, something he had forgotten to do while he was taking cover behind the pillar. The same exact pillar he was now standing behind. 

The very same pillar that rose only to knee-height.

The eldritch creature known as Alcor The Dreambender flashed him a wicked, snarling grin as the world ended. 


	2. Strangers in the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow look ma, no hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you wish I wasn't updating. Can't stop me now, train aint got breaks no more yehaw

A cheap and flimsily constructed wooden crate struck the ground with an echoing crack. Long splinters and chunks of cracked wood scattered to the dimly lit paving stones below. The lanky boy who had been holding the crate scrambled to catch it before it struck the ground, but unfortunately for both him and his paycheck, his attempt was in vain. 

The boy dropped to the ground, doing his best to gather up trinkets wrapped in paper and small padded sacks; as loose shredded packing materials soaked up dirty water from the damp ground. 

"What in the fuck are you doing, Nate?" A deep, raspy male voice coughed out; obviously startled. "You go fucking stupid or something?"

"Fuck off David." The boy spat back, lifting a tightly wrapped cylinder from the crate’s now disheveled contents. He hefted it in his hands for a moment. It weighed maybe ten pounds, and rattled just slightly as he set it aside; doing his best to sort though the mess he had just made. "Do we have any empty ones?" Nate stammered over his shoulder to David, doing his best to suppress the anxiety that had flooded into him after what he had just done. 

"Yeah you wish, dipshit.” David said, a smug- Cheshire grin on his face. “The one you just ruined was the last one we had on hand.” His smile grew even wider as he leaned out of the truck’s bed, taking a good look at the damage Nate had just caused. He had, up until Nathan’s little slip-up, been making himself busy in securing other crates into the truck with ratchet straps. “Rebecca's gonna have your balls for this, you know that?"

"You're shitting me, right?" Nate asked, incredulous. Surely that couldn’t have actually been the  _ only _ empty crate they had left?

"No, I'm not." David said, his grin dropping just a bit as he spoke the words. “Maybe we can move it to another box while Ray isn't paying any~"

It was at that moment, a third voice echoed down the alleyway, bouncing off the brick walls and hard paving stones. 

"The hell are you two yammering about over there?" Raymond shouted to the two of them from the front of the alley where he was, admittedly, keeping quite the tight watch. Nate watched as the older man shouldered his well-worn rifle. 

"It's nothing Ray." David called back, brow furrowing, "Just go back to staring at nothing, you good-for-nothing louse." He gave Nathan the slightest wink before walking off towards Raymond. Hopefully David could keep the security contractor distracted long enough that he wouldn’t notice the small catastrophe Nathan had created. 

As David approached, Raymond adopted a more relaxed pose, which also allowed Nathan to get a good look at the heat he was packing. 

The gun was  _ ancient. _ It was designed well-before the Transcendence, and definitely showed. It always struck Nathan as odd that such competent people tended to stick to such outdated technology. Honestly now, a Kalashnikov? It just seemed out of place somehow. 

Despite its obsolescence, and the fact that such 'mortal weapons' wouldn't do much against a demon or a dragon, Nate had to admit that they  _ did _ make great deterrents against practically everyone else. Besides, Nathan sincerely doubted that even a troll could take thirty rounds of fully-automatic fire. 

Nate watched as David and Ray began chatting about something unimportant. He thought he could hear them talking about cars as he hefted one of the lighter crates out of the truck bed. Maybe he could just scatter the items into the other crates and make it look like the one he dropped never existed? 

It was a good plan. It might have even worked, too. Or at least, it might have worked if what was inside the crate he was about to open hadn’t planned on melting the skin off his bones. 


End file.
